Something a friend said to me yesterday has carried such weight with me over the course of a night.  Luke and I are known for our intellectual pissing matches and battles of rhetoric and philosophy.  Sometimes though, one of us needs to come out atop this match of endless equality. 

It would seem that I was left with something to think about. Forgiveness.  Justification.  These are gifts from God, sacrifices of Christ.  We mustn’t ask for these gifts on our terms and at our time.  They were already given to us, we have but to accept them.  We aren’t asking God’s forgiveness…that would assume we had control over such a powerful thing.  We are accepting it; receiving it.  That is all.

Last night I forgot a can of Guinness in the freezer.  Needles to say, when I opened it the thing was a bucket of slush…but it’s the finest tasting bucket of slush I ever had…I had to squish it all out of the can…but man it was the best pint I’ve ever had.

Monte Milagros – Dominican
Cafe Bustello – Cuba
El Toucan – Panama
Cafe Del Senor Tim Horton – Canada
Pluma Oaxaca – Mexico

My Favorite Coffees…What are yours?  Leave me some comments on your favorite coffee and where it is from so I can try it and prove that my picks are better.

Thanks a million Erick.

Last night while I was craping my dog, I met some people downstairs and talked for a while.  One of the things that was noted during our conversation was how for Virginia and I to actually like living in th Soo, we had to live in a third world country first.  The Dominican is not a “true” third world country, but the displacement of its wealth makes places in it so.

Where I’m getting is that I had a revelation.  Living around so many people who had nothing at all for so long made me realize that living in Canada is a blessing God has given to us.  I think right now about Fidelia.  She was the wash lady at my house in the DR and had been for nearly 35 years before I got there.  She was an old woman who had never known anything other than what she did, but was happy.  It should never be about what we HAVE per-say…but what we don’t have to go without.

The Soo Really is a beautiful place to live.  Virginia and I like it here very much and are looking forward to calling it “home” for a while.

What is the difference between guilt and conviction?  So often we’re faced with things we feel like we should do.  Calling pitiful friends, apologizing for being the one who was wrong.  In our lives the holy spirit makes us feel convicted about decisions we make.  On the other side of the metaphorical coin…there’s guilt…not feeling like we should do something…but feeling like we have to do something.

The only way to tell the difference is our motives.  This is something I learned from a Tibetan monk I spoke with (via translator) this week.  I asked him what he thought of famous people being Buddhist.  He told me, it’s not about the confession of the mouth or the life…but the motives of the soul.  This is true for everything.  Are you doing something because you should?  Conviction.  Are you doing something because you have to?  Guilt.  You cannot judge your actions by the actions themselves, but by your motives.

A Sand Mandala

For every protection there is a hack, for every key there is a keygen.  This holds true.  I found an interesting file which someone, with a pirated copy of XP, could drop into there system32 directory.  This would replace the old one and allow you to use Automatic Updates with an OS that is less than genuine.

Get the File Here

There comes a time in ones life when they must make the move from nerd to super nerd.  Since I’m not stunned enough to purchase a mac, which doesn’t make you a nerd, it makes you computer elitist scum…I decided instead to install SuSe Linux.  I’m also on Skype now…there’s a link on the side-bar as well.  Get skype now.  It really is the best thing going.  You can call any Skype user in the world for free and even get USB phones for your computer.  It’s all so grand.